


you are broken, and i am such a wreck

by longhairandbarefeet



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Mutually Unrequited, Random Prompts, one shots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-24 13:45:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6155559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longhairandbarefeet/pseuds/longhairandbarefeet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a series of standalone one-shots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. i wonder how you stay so sad, when you're so beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> This idea wouldn't leave me alone. It's a standalone, but I am totally not against doing more for it somewhere down the road after I update my other fics. I am also taking little prompts for them if any has suggestions!
> 
> It's also unbeta'd, and I wrote it late last night, any errors are my own!

“Dance with me.” Seth breathes hot air into her hair, and she wrinkles her nose because he smells like the strong liquor he has been nursing all evening. They rarely ever leave the motel room, and tonight is no different. He sits on his side of the bed cleaning his gun, and intermingling it with gulps of his Kentucky Bourbon that sits on the nightstand the way a Bible should. 

“You’re drunk.” Kate replies already irritated with him because when he drinks this much he sings Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra unbearably loud, and throws up on the bedspread before passing out. 

“And you’re pretty.” Seth smiles devilishly at her with his thick eyebrow kinked up. “Let’s not hold these things against each other, sweetheart.”

“You will regret saying that tomorrow.” Kate retorts, moving away from him, but he follows on her heels. She pretends it doesn’t affect her, the way he hovers like a puppy begging for scraps, but it makes her feel all sorts of things low into the pit of her stomach.

“Just dance with me, Katie.” Seth reaches out for her waist, and brings her close to him forcefully. She wonders if she’s ever been this close to someone before in the past. He presses himself to her, his warm stomach tight against her own, and she can feel every inhale and exhale. He interlocks their fingers, and she enjoys the way they feel against her own, his long, fingers clutching tightly to her little ones. She can already feel the sweat perspiring between them they are so fucking close. 

“There is no music, Seth Gecko.” Kate reasons, her mouth pursed and puckered, and she watches his eyes flicker down to look at it. She thinks he wanted to kiss her at that moment, but he resists the urgency, instead opting to lean over the bed to turn the alarm clock radio on. She rolls her eyes, but she notices she hasn’t let herself let go of his hand.

“It’s not Taylor Swift, princess, but it will have to do.” Seth says, and she can hear the Spanish guitar through the tiny speaker. She hates to admit how much she truly loves the sound, it’s romantic, beautiful, haunting, and goddammit if it doesn’t turn her on to listen to the simple melodies playing quietly, especially with Seth Gecko holding her tightly to his body.

“You know I love this.” Kate presses her cheek down onto his shoulder, and closes her eyes. She pretends she is somewhere else, anywhere else besides the dark, dirty motel room she is currently swaying in. When she feels his hand on her lower back start to move further down until he is hovering dangerously close to her ass, she knows should stop him, but she doesn’t. She lets him cup her right cheek, and press his lips to her ear. 

“Why aren’t you telling me to stop?” Seth asks with his mouth pressing hot kisses to her earlobes, and she can feel the little hairs on the back of her neck stand up on their ends.

“I don’t know.” Kate breathes out. She can normally shake him off on days when he tries to push her limits and see how far he can take it, but this is the furthest they’ve gone, and she knows he is surprised by his tone.

“Do you want me to stop touching you?” Seth takes his hand that’s been alternating between rubbing, and grabbing her ass, and slowly slides around the slope of her hip to find the front of her jeans. He pulls at the button, and then at the zipper teasingly. She knows he wants to touch her there, and she knows she wants him to touch her there too. 

“No.”

“Did church boy touch you like this?” Seth undoes the zipper, and button, putting his hand into her pants causing her to moan in sweet surprise. She has never been touched like this before, and having his rough hands on her makes her head spin. 

“No.” Kate replies with a breathy whimper accidentally slipping from between her lips, and she’s trying not to give away how good this feels to her, but her eyes flicker close at the touch of his fingertips on a particular spot that makes her knees start shaking. 

“How about my brother, Katie, did he make you come?”

“You know he didn’t.” Kate scrunches her brows at him, astonished that he would even ask, but Richie and him have some unspoken competition that she can’t even begin to understand. “But we really should stop.” 

“Why?” Seth asks, removing his hand that’s been touching her just to bring her close enough to him to feel the bulge coming from his pants. It causes her to yelp in surprise at the brashness, but she shouldn’t because what else should she expect from this heated moment. 

“You’re drunk.” 

“ Afraid you’re taking advantage of me, darling?” Seth laughs at that, rubbing his nose down her cheek, and nipping his teeth on her bottom lip. While she hates to admit it, he is right. She doesn’t want the first time they do something like this to be a time he won’t remember. Kate thinks she is naïve to believe it could be something more than this though, a motel room with staticky music coming through the alarm clock speaker is all they have these days. 

“Don’t make fun of me.” Kate responds with her tone laced with venomous intent. It’s ironic how they each have their own form of venom, Seth injects it into his neck where his brother bit him, and she lets it flow from her saccharine sweet lips because it’s her best weapon.

“I’m not.” Seth leans away from her after she continues to give him a spiteful glare, and he lets his hands fall at his side. Seth falls on his bed, fluffs his pillows behind his head, and tucks himself under the sheets. “Goodnight, Kate.” 

“Goodnight, Seth.” 

“Oh, and princess?” 

“Yeah?” Kate has found her way to the other side of the bed, already burying herself under the blankets. She’s angry with him, but most of all she’s angry with herself because she feels irritatingly unsatisfied with a betraying ache between her legs. 

“When I am stone cold sober tomorrow,” Seth is leaning over to face her now, his eyes dark and piercing causing her to swallow hard with a dry lump in her throat. “I will touch you, and I will make you come.” 

Kate knows she won’t be able to sleep now, and that makes her even madder.


	2. i hope you're happy just the same

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> post season 2 au, where Seth is getting married and Kate visits right before the ceremony.

She stands outside of the door, a light tap against it, and she suddenly feels stupid for coming. Kate hasn’t seen him in years, and she was surprised to see the invitation in the mail two months ago. The thought of seeing him again didn’t escape her, and now here she stood, almost face to face with his five o’clock shadow, and playful smirk. 

He swings it open a few seconds later, and she knows that there is probably a lot of things about him that are different, five years is a long time to not see someone, but he looks the exact same as when she left. His hair is still black as the night sky, and eyes just as dark to match it. 

“Kate,” Seth breathes her name out like the end of a prayer, the way he always did when he’d wake up before her, and whisper in her ear so they could move onto a new town, or a new motel. 

“Hi, Seth.” 

She steps inside the dressing room, and he closes the door with a quiet click behind her. When she turns to look at him again, she realizes he is looking at her intently. She supposes she’s probably changed a lot in five years too. She isn’t seventeen years old, and falling apart, not anymore. 

“I didn’t think you’d come.” Seth says with a tilt of his head, and stepping in front of the mirror attempting to fix his bowtie. He mumbles curse words under his breath, and Kate rolls her eyes because she knows he is too damn stubborn to ask her for help.

“And why wouldn’t I come?” Kate asks, walking up to him, reaching for his shoulders to turn him around, and beginning to work at untying it. She works her fingers gently, tying and straightening it out, pretending she can’t smell his aftershave or feel his warm breath on the apple of her cheek, but it’s all intoxicating, the way it was when she was just a little girl all those years ago. 

“Because the last time you saw me you said, and I quote: I never want to see your face as long as I live.” Seth replies, looking down at her with a half smile, not one of the big ones that reach his eyes, but still a genuine one nonetheless. 

“I was a teenager.” Kate scrunches her nose at him, and smiles. “Very dramatic.” 

“I’ve missed you.” Seth whispers. 

She finishes, and lets her hands slide slowly down the front of his tuxedo jacket, letting herself feel him for the last time. She can’t imagine another moment where she’ll touch him, much less see him again. Her hands reach his the bottom of his chest, and she goes to pull away, but he stops her by pressing his hands over her own. 

“I missed you too.” 

“Liar.” Seth quips. He pulls his hands away from hers, and let’s hers fall at her side lazily. She didn’t want to stop touching him, but she won’t let him see that. 

“I did.”

“Then why did you leave?” 

Kate was wondering when he’d ask this, wondering why it’s taken him five years to do it. She left in a haze of frustration, in the middle of an identity crisis, and immediately after sex with Seth Gecko. She had been traveling with him for a few months; scared she was someone she wasn’t, afraid that she was no longer the person she strived to be for so long. It wasn’t until she gave him her virginity so easily that she knew there was no going back for her. 

“Why didn’t you try to find me?” 

She can see on his face that he expected this question, it’s something he’s probably struggled with for the past five years like she’s struggled with her motives for leaving him behind. His eyebrows scrunched up, and he opened his mouth to say something, but he immediately closed it again. They stayed standing in silence for a few moments until he finally spoke:

“I was ashamed.” Seth moves closer to her, and reaches for her hands. She lets him with a sigh escaping from her lips. “I shouldn’t have taken advantage—”

“You didn’t.” Kate interrupts him, lifting her finger to his lips to stop him from speaking untruths. She should probably take her finger away, but she lets them hover over his mouth, and he gives her that look, the same look that he gave her five years ago. It was the look that swept her up, and swallowed her whole.

“Why are you here, Kate?” 

“To see you get married.” 

“Why are you here, Kate?” Seth repeats. He doesn’t believe that, and maybe that’s the topical reason for her presence, but she’s here to see him, check on him, and look at him.

“To see you.” Kate stutters, her voice crackling under the intensity of the situation, unsure if she should just kiss him and evade the question, but she knows it’s wrong, he’s about to be married. “I’ve missed you so much these last five years, and I guess, I guess I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m okay.” Seth replies stoutly, and she nods slowly. She looks up at him, and suddenly he’s in her personal space. He’s so close to her, and she ponders that this is all a dream, one she’s had on numerous occasions. “And you, princess? Are you okay?” 

“No.” 

He laughs, an inappropriate response, but it’s one she’d expect from him. When he stops, and it’s quiet again, he reaches to run his fingers through her hair, and she closes her eyes immediately at the touch. She’s grateful to have this moment with him as he places his hand on her face, and caresses the softness of her cheek. He leans in, and she’s sure he is going to kiss her, but he presses his forehead to hers, and let’s out a harsh breath instead. If she leaned forward just a few inches their lips would be touching, and it thrills her, it’s the first thing to excite her in ages. 

“I can’t.” Seth whispers. “I’m trying to be better.” 

“Okay.” Kate replies pulling away from him, dejected. She always thought that when he’d try to be a better man it would be with her, but now she just feels like a stupid little girl for thinking that. “I’m sorry.” 

“I’m sorrier.” Seth says, and Kate stifles a laugh because it’s just like him to have to one up her, even with an apology falling from his un-kissed lips. 

“Goodbye, Seth Gecko.” Kate forces herself not to cry, not in front of him, she did that way to many times when she was with him on the run. She leaves the room so quickly she doesn’t give him a chance to say another word, and it’s then she lets herself cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who left comments, kudos, and bookmarked it! I am always accepting prompts also! :)


	3. and if I had breathed you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr prompt: Kate's been friends and neighbors with the Gecko brothers for as long as she can remember, and she's had a crush on Seth just as long. Even though she's sure he just thinks of her as a lil sister. But all that changes when she finally decides to let go of her first love and she brings home a guy neither of them approve of.

“He’s a little prick, Kate.” Seth stands up from the front porch swing shaking. He was excited to see her, eager to hear all about her first semester in college, and even though the night before she left they had a fight, Seth remained hopeful regarding the delicate state of their relationship. Everything had seemed okay those few months apart, they exchanged a few emails, a couple texts, but he was fooling himself. She wasn’t okay with him, and that was very apparent when she walked through baggage claim holding hands with some goody two shoes frat boy named Kyle. He should have never told Jacob he’d give her a ride because he sat pouting the entire drive home.

“You have no right to say that to me.” Kate seethes, her hands on her hips, and she looks ready to explode. She’s right, he knows it, but he can’t help it. He’s known her a long time, when she was twelve years old and he was on the verge of twenty he had moved in next door with Richie. They were both fresh faced, and out of high school, ready to start over. Kate seemed to exemplify change for them. They viewed her as a sister, a small person to protect when things got a little tough, but when she started growing up things got blurry for him. 

“I know, but he is.” Seth continues. “He quotes bible verses unironically, he wears skinny jeans, he smiles too much, is he always so goddamn happy?” 

“Why do you care so much?” Kate asks. “You made it pretty clear back in August that we weren’t anything. I couldn’t hold out for a lost cause. I couldn’t keep putting myself through it. It hurt too much, Seth.”

“And I know that.”

“Then why do you really care? I don’t want some bullshit reason; I want the truth. Why do you care?”

It really was a good question, and he hated to admit that. He could sit here, and tell her it was because he was over protective, that he had a big brother complex, and that Kyle wasn’t good enough for her. In reality it dove much deeper, so deep his heart couldn’t quite find it until the timing was right. He cares so much because as bad as the consequences are, as bad as wanting her could be, he still wants her so fucking much. He hadn’t been able to think of anything else since she’d gotten home, and he had spent almost four months questioning his feelings for her. She had kissed him drunk on wine coolers, and he dismissed her advances because it was the right thing to do. 

“You are important to me, Katie.”

“It’s more than that.” Kate replies quietly. She’s all dolled up tonight, and he remembers when she used to get all dolled up for him, trying to impress him on nights when he’d take some other girl out on the town instead of her. She’s wearing something he’d never seen her in before, a little, tight, black dress that hugs curves he never knew existed on her body. She even changed her hair, and he looks at her because she’s not the same girl he used to know, but he knows she still has that cut on her knee she got when she rode her bike around the block, and that crooked smile she’d given him when he used to make her laugh. He doesn’t know those lines anymore, and apart of him wonders if he ever did.

“I can’t do this,” Seth says, and he’s doing the opposite of his words. He’s walking towards her, letting his fingers graze across her flushed cheek, and he’s letting out a defeated sigh. He won’t be able to win this because he’s a selfish bastard, he wants her and he definitely doesn’t want anyone else to have her no matter how much better they are for her. “I really shouldn’t.”

“Shouldn’t what?” 

“Want you, little Katie Fuller.” Seth replies, his voice is low as he inches closer to her and he’s sure he heard her voice hitch. He can tell she wants him too, but he wonders if it’s just as much as she did the day she left.

“You can’t just do this.” Kate says leaning her forehead into his, and closing her eyes tightly. “This isn’t one of those romantic comedies I used to rope you and Richie into watching. I am not Audrey Hepburn and you definitely aren’t Humphrey Bogart.”

“We don’t have to be, Kate.” Seth says, and he’s only a breath away from her. His lips hovering over hers, and he can almost taste her. “I just want to kiss you, kiss you the way that kid in there can’t. I haven’t been able to think of much else all night.”

“Kiss me then.”


	4. we're just a beggar's banquet in space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr prompt: Club Kate, bouncer Seth (saw this in the tag a while back and I don't think anyone grabbed it) She's trying so hard to look it, but he can tell she doesn't belong. He lets her in anyways and maybe he keeps a eye on her more than just anyone dancing on his floor, attracting a lot of unwanted attention

He’s probably going to be going to hell for this one, well this and all the other bad shit he’s done in his life, but this has got to be the worst of it. She’s young, too young to be in here, but he had let her in anyways. He couldn’t say no to her, a girl with big green eyes and wearing a short dress shaped like a sweet, little cupcake he could just eat up. She had stuck out the crowd like a sore thumb in the long line outside, but it didn’t stop him from letting her through the velvet ropes. It also didn’t stop him from fixating on her most of the night. 

It shouldn’t surprise him that he can pick her out of the crowd; she’s the only one in the bright pink cocktail dress with a frown on her face. She’s on the dance floor, surrounded by boys waiting on their turn to dance with her, but she looks lost under the strobe lights of the club. He can tell that she’s lonely, the distant look in her eyes and the vacant expression.

Seth looks away for just a moment, and when he looks back she’s vanished. He’s lost sight of the pretty girl in the dress until he sees her standing a few feet to his left typing furiously on her phone. He can’t help but continue to stare, wondering why she was angry? Who she was talking to? What was her story? He knows that he should be doing his job, but he can’t stop himself. 

“Is staring in your job description?” The girl asks, her brow rising high at him, and he turns a light shade of red because no one has ever said something like that to him before. (He kind of liked it, enjoyed the firecracker underneath layers of pink.)

“Sorry, princess,” Seth replies coolly, searching his back pocket for a cigarette and lighter. “I didn’t know I’d offend your delicate sensibilities.”

“Oh my god,” she presses her hand to her forehead, and lets out a deep sigh. “I am so sorry. I have never snapped at a stranger like that before.”

“I guess I should feel special then.” Seth says smiling. He’s crossing his arms over his puffed out chest, and he motions his head to the backdoor of the club so he could smoke his cigarette, and so they could go outside to talk where the music wasn’t too loud and he could, selfishly, get her alone. He doesn’t know what it is about her, what draws him in, but there is something special. She follows him, and he’s happy for it. He takes her to the alley beside the club, and sticks the cigarette in his mouth. He lights the end, and sucks in a breath.

“I’m Kate.” She is sticking her hand out, waiting for him to take it, and he grabs her hand while his other hand pulls the cigarette from between his lips to blow out a puff of smoke. It’s a perfunctory gesture, but he can’t help but enjoy the way her tiny hand fits into his coarse one. 

“Seth.”

Kate pulls her hand away after, and crosses them over her chest. She’s studying him now, and he wonders what she’s staring at so intently. 

“Nice tattoo.” Kate says uncrossing her arms to point at the tattoo that roped around his arm. Her eyes followed the curve of his shoulder to the place on the wrist where it stops. The flames were something he grew accustomed to. He doesn’t think of it as a tattoo anymore, more like a birthmark he’s had since he was born.

“Yeah.” Seth lifts his arm to examine the black flames with a distant expression, remembering a different life he’s completely left behind. “I’ve had it since I was about your age, kid.”

“My age?”

“Yeah, what are you? Eighteen? Nineteen?” Seth replies rubbing his hand across the stubble lying on his chin. He can see she looks like she’s going to fight him on the fact, but instead she just shrugs, and sighs defeated. He drops the cigarette onto the pavement, and steps on it.

“Why did you let me in?” 

“I don’t know, I though you were cute.” Seth admits to her with a sheepish grin. “I guess I shouldn’t say that, I am probably twice your age.”

“Probably.” Kate shrugs, and her shoulders rise and fall. “It would probably be inappropriate if you took me home wouldn’t it?”

“Probably.” Seth smiles as he pulls his keys from his back pocket, and jingles it in the air a little which makes her smile wider. He’s impulsive, but he can tell she’s one of those people that think everything out before doing it. “Let’s get out of here, kid.”


	5. quite awful pretty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a Game Of Thrones au where Seth is a Sand Snake, and Kate is a Stark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this like a billion years ago, and I thought I'd share it :) It's obviously a little ooc, but not really cause i totally see Seth as a cocky knight trying to prove himself to Kate.

“Starks do not cavort with Sand Snakes.” Kate says standing stoic near the flap of the tent, arms crossed over her chest. She tries to avert eye contact, and the way he looks in his armor because something about him wearing it fulfills every silly fantasy she has ever created in her head as a young girl.

“I just asked for your favor,” Seth responds with a warm smile. “I don’t think you even know what cavorting is, at least when it comes to me.” He eyes her, and she is suddenly cognizant of her appearance, the way her hair falls suddenly seems wrong, and her brand new dress feels ill fitting. 

“I already promised my favor to someone else. Besides, I wouldn’t want you to wear it.” She lies because no one in the tourney will actually wear something she has stitched, and it is because the only person she could see wearing it would be him. She almost hates herself for that.

“You keep telling yourself that, princess.” He responds, a smooth response for a smooth man, but she isn’t falling for this like every other maiden making mooneyes at him. She can’t let herself fall into the arms of the bastard of Sunspear.

“Stop calling me that.” Kate responds huffy. Her expression, and tone remain infuriated at him. He only had known her for a fortnight, and he already knew the proper buttons to press to agitate her to her very core.

“Sorry, my lady.” Seth says bowing to her, dramatic and sarcastic, a quality she wished she didn’t find endearing and annoying simultaneously. 

“Good luck, ser.” Kate says with a smile. “Don’t break anything, would really be a shame.”

“Your compassion is putting me into a daze, little wolf.” Seth says, and with one last glance before leaving the tent she sees his left brow kinked, and a tight-lipped smile on his mouth. She wonders what he has up his sleeve. 

Later in the day when he wins the final joust, he trots his horse over to where she sits, and lays the crown of love and beauty on her lap. She looks down at the intricate wreath of wildflowers, and smiles.

“You’re incorrigible.” She says to him, a small giggle escapes her lips. When she looks over at her friends she notices that their eyes are wide at the recent development.

“Only when it comes to you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know what ya think! :) It's obviously silly, but eh...I like silly! 
> 
> tumblr: youcancalllmequeenjane  
> twitter: callmequeenkate

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from the song "A Lovely Mess" by Front Porch Step


End file.
